22 August 2019, Addis Ababa - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), and the World Health Organization (WHO) held a capacity building workshop for national stakeholders on One-Health joint risk assessment approach. The training aims to strengthen expertise of national stakeholders for the fight against zoonotic diseases in Ethiopia.

In his opening remark, Nega Tewolde, Deputy Team Leader of the Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) Programme for FAO Ethiopia, said: "Collaboration among the national animal health, public health, and environment sectors is required to effectively prepare for, detect, assess, and respond to both emerging and endemic zoonoses and other health threats."

The training aimed to familiarize relevant technical and policy-level experts from government and non-government offices with the Joint Risk Assessment (JRA) tool and processes, and conducting risk assessment jointly for selected priority zoonotic disease hazards to provide alternatives for risk management options and communication messages.

Evidence asserts that zoonotic diseases spreading at the interface of wildlife, animals and people pose global health security risks which requires collaboration among the animal, public, and environment sectors. One way to foster the collaboration of the relevant sectors to address the challenge is through joint technical planning and execution of JRA.

Feyisa Regassa, Chairman of the National One-Health Steering Committee, said: "The training is one of the joint efforts to capacitate expertise of key national and regional One-Health platforms with the joint risk assessment tool and processes."

Experts attended from the Ministry of Agriculture, Ethiopian Public Health Institute, Commission for Environment Forest and Climate Change, Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority, regional One Health platforms, FAO, WHO and John Hopkins University. 

Contact

Dr. Getachew Gari, National Epidemiology-Laboratory Coordinator, FAO Ethiopia
E-mail: [email protected]

Yonas Tafesse, EU-SHARE PPR Project Extension Communication Officer, FAO Ethiopia
E-mail: [email protected]